Maison&Objet 2013: Spanish designer Héctor Serrano will launch a portable speaker designed to look like the sound icon from a computer at Maison&Objet in Paris this week.
Called Iconico, the speaker for French brand Lexon can be switched off simply by turning it face down. "It's a playful, intuitive and simple object to listen to your music everywhere in high sound quality," says Serrano.
Iconico is made of ABS plastic and comes in dark grey and white. It's intended for use with mobile phones and connects via a 3.5 millimetre stereo audio cable.
Maison&Objet takes place in Paris from 18 to 22 January.
Other speakers we've featured include one that straps over your sneakers and another with a fabric control panel. See all our stories about speaker design »
You might also like to check out Dezeen Music Project, our showcase for tracks by young and upcoming musicians and record labels.
Other designs by Héctor Serrano include hand puppet tattoos and paper animal faces for balloons, plus glass jars with cork lids launched last year. See all our stories about design by Héctor Serrano »
Lexon is a design brand based in France and China. Other Lexon products on Dezeen include a range of calculators, clocks, torches and radios made of corn starch, and a set of stackable, colour-coded stationary. The Take Time watch by Mathieu Lehanneur, which is available at Dezeen Watch Store, is also produced by Lexon.
Here are the specs for the speaker:
Power output: 1.5W
Speaker: 2W+ base
Frequency range: 20Hz-20kHz
SNR: 65dB
Distortion: <1%
Cell: lithium cell 400mAh
Typical runtime : 4 hours at medium volume
Charging voltage: USB 5V
Charging time: 2 hours
Connecting cable: 3.5MM stereo audio cable
Dimensions: Φ71X55MM
So they’ve designed a speaker to look like the sound icon on the computer, which was originally designed to look like a speaker.
So they’ve essentially (albeit by an uninformed accident) designed a speaker to look like a speaker.
We have made a full circle.
It bears such resemblance to a concept design for Altec Lansing by UK designer Timothy Rundle:
http://www.designboom.com/project/volume/
It obviously looks the same, but at the same time it is the simple representation of a speaker. Being at the development with the designer, I guarantee that it was developed from a white sheet of paper without any idea of copying. That happens sometimes.
So nobody thought about googling the words “iconic speaker” or similar during the development of the final models?
If this was done, you would notice there was no need for an already existing item (I also notice some differences and would “update’” the original design). It would probably have made more sense to team up and boost sales for one item, thus getting an advantage in, for instance, sales quantity.
Even as an unabashed copy, it is quite unremarkable.
At a time when there is such innovation happening in audio, why is this here?
balladicious hit the nail on the head.
Also, when will rubbish sound quality stop being hailed as “good design”?
Looks like they have designed more landfill that can also be used as a speaker.
I would like to see how all these critics and wise people do it better… : )